Loud Steps
by Telewolf
Summary: Jasmine is an 8 year old girl who has been a permanent guest in this hotel for 2 weeks. It's nice and all, but unidentifiable footsteps keep her from falling asleep. Jasmine decides to figure who's making these sounds with the help of a friend. Oneshot, first story, rated T for minor blood and suggestive themes.


**Bang bang bang**

_Please go away_

**Bang bang bang**

_I don't know who that is, but please go away_

**Bang bang bang**

GAH

Jasmine climbed out of her warm bed. It wasn't long since she became a... well, permanent guest at the hotel. It was enjoyable, but some things really annoyed her, like Angel Dog always hogging up the T.V. to watch football, or Gregory always confiscating the books she found in the store room.

But the part she hated the most? She always heard someone walking around her room late at night. The sound of footsteps would always keep her up, leaving her really sleepy during the day. But whenever she went out of her room to see who it was, nobody was ever there. She tells Gregory, but it's always the old "I'll see what I can do later", and then later never comes.

Jasmine opened the door, only to, yet again, find nobody there.

"I'm never gonna get any sleep around here..." Jasmine said quietly to avoid waking anyone. She closed the door and hoped right back into bed.

**Bang bang bang**

Jasmine tried her best to ignore it. She put her pillow over her head to try and cancel out the sound, only to no prevail.

"I've had just about enough of this" Jasmine said to herself. She went to the closet and pulled out a flashlight. She was going to find who did this once and for all.

Jasmine opened her bedroom door again. She began down the hall, careful not to make too much noise. The last time she woke up Catherine... yikes. Even after going up and down the halls twice, she could still not find anybody. She went back to her room.

_How am I gonna catch this guy?_ Jasmine thought to herself.

**Bang bang bang**

There it was again, those taunting footsteps, just waiting for her to open the door so they could disappear...

Jasmine decided that she needed help. _But who to ask?_ Jasmine pondered. Gregory was of no use, My Son and Mummy Dog were asleep, the adults would be of no help... of course! Jasmine snuck away over to the lounge. Sure enough, James was there, with a bowl of popcorn. He was hugging a pillow as he watched a horror show "When Aliens Attack". James would always sneak away from his bed at night and watch horror shows, only to be scared the next morning of the boogyman or something. _You'd think living in a horror house would make you less terrified of scary movies..._ Jasmine thought. She opened the door, causing James to jump with fear, nearly sending him through the roof.

"Oh, uh, hi Jasmine!" James said. Jasmine could hear the shakiness in his voice and saw the gentle shaking of his body. James must have realized this, because before Jasmine could respond, he blurted out "I'm just watching a super scary movie, totally lame if you're a strong, brave guy like me!"

"Sure you are..." Jasmine mouthed silently.

"What do you want? Do you wanna watch the movie to? You can hold my hand if it gets too scary for you!" James said, holding out his hand.

"Nope, I need your help"

James paused his movie and listened (or, at least pretended to) to the story of the footsteps.

"I bet it's a spooky ghost!" James yelled.

"Keep it down, the other guests might hear us!" Jasmine told him.

"Ha," James began walking out of the lounge, "I'm not worried about disturbing other guests!" Just then, Mummy Papa opened his door and threw a shoe at James, then presumably went back to bed.

Jasmine could barley contain her laughter. She rushed over to where James was. "Are you okay?"

James quickly stood up. "Of course I am, a shoe isn't enough to stop me!" Jasmine giggled a little more.

"Anyways, will you help me figure out who's been making the footsteps?"

"Sure! But it'll cost you!"

_Grumble._ Jasmine knew what he meant by "it'll cost you". Her and James had been collecting trading cards, and Jasmine had the best one: the Angel Dog card. James begged many times for it, but she wouldn't give it up.

Jasmine took the card from her pocket and handed it over to James.

"All right!" James yelled, again forgetting to keep his voice low. Hell Chef opened his door and threw a butcher knife straight at the boy. Thwap! James got hit in the back of the head with it. It was lodged and bleeding.

"Uh... um..." Jasmine was shocked. He just got hit in the back of the head with a knife and was perfectly fine. He took the knife from the back of his head and tossed it on the ground. He then took out a bandage and placed it on the cut.

"There, good as new!" James said, a bit quieter this time. Jasmine could see a tear forming up in his eye.

"Okay then..." Jasmine whispered. "Now then, how do you think we should catch this ghost guy?"

"What we need to do, is set up a trap!" James began as he rushed to his room. A few seconds later, her returned with a box full of things, like banana peels and thumb tacks.

"A trap... really? Don't ghosts go through stuff?"

"Well then we just make this stuff be able to hurt ghosts!"

"How do you plan on doing that?" James reached deeper into the box and pulled out a jar full of jelly.

"Ghosts are made out of ectoplasm, right? Well, jelly is like ectoplasm, so if we coat the trap with jelly, then it'll work!"

"… you've been watching too many horror movies..."Jasmine began, rolling her eyes. "How exactly will jelly-"

"Just trust me! It'll work!" James interrupted, "Now, here's how we'll make the trap. First..." James began describing the trap.

* * *

The duo hid in Jasmines room and looked out the keyhole. Jasmine couldn't help being impressed. The plan was for the "ghost" to slip on a banana peel, be sent flying backwards onto the thumbtacks, then get up and trip over a tripwire into sticky honey. Then they would run out of the room and find who the footstep ghost really was. And it was all covered in jelly.

"This better work... Jasmine told James.

"Don't worry, it will. It worked on Mama Gregory when I did it to her!"

Suddenly, they heard the footsteps again.

**Bang bang bang**

...but nothing other than that sound was made.

"Huh?" James gasped, surprised one of his "Grade A Official James Prank Traps" had failed. He ran out of the room, completely forgetting to be careful of his trap.

"James, be car-" Jasmine began, but it was no use. James had slipped on the banana peel, landed on the thumbtacks, tripped the wire and fell in the honey. Jasmine, cautious of the traps, rushed to James aid. Of course, she laughed a bit first.

"I guess my traps are so good, even I get caught in them" James said getting up from the glue.

"I guess so" Jasmine responded. There was a long pause.

"I guess we'll never figure out who was making the footsteps..." Jasmine sighed.

"Aw, I was really looking forward to catching that guy..." James said, also sighing.

"Well, thanks for the help. I might as well at least try to get some sleep."

"Wait a second, I might have something that will help!" James rushed off again to his room. About a minute later, he showed up with his box, and another knife in his head. He dug around in the box until he got two small sponges.

"They're earplugs! I usually use them when I blast a blow horn at Catherine, but you seem like you could use them more than me." James said, handing over the earplugs. Jasmine put them in her ears.

"Are they working?" James asked.

"Huh? What was that?" Jasmine said, taking the earplugs back out. Dang, they were effective! "Wow, thank you James!" Jasmine gave James a hug, told him good night, then rushed off to her bed. She waited for the sounds of footsteps.

...Nothing.

_Ah. Silence._ And with a final thought, she drifted off to dream once more.

* * *

Meanwhile, in the basement...

"This is too cruel! Oh, why me!" Gregory said, and another show landed on him.

"Come on, spin me if you want your private book back!" Roulette boy said, jumping around Gregory. He had gotten a hold of Gregory's "Me Time" books, and decided to use it in order to get Gregory to play his new game. In it, when you landed on a space, a giant shoe would come down and crush the person on it, then send them back to start.

"Just give it back! I'm sure the shoes are keeping some of the guests up!" Gregory pleaded to the boy.

"Nope! Not until you spin me!"


End file.
